Once They Killed a Tiger on a Sippy Cup
By Kathleen Hellen / Issue 10
The source code is
reptilian,
unimpeded by taboos
like “use a fork, a spoon.”
They chew on oozing
pop-tarts, watch cartoons.
The screen
a serengeti, where a zebra
ties on shoes, an elephant
in tutu
performs attitudes.
A giraffe
in big, thick glasses
impersonates
the masters.
The toddlers
drool, advancing
toward the plasma,
their cuspids
and incisors erupting.
KATHLEEN HELLEN is the author of the award-winning collection Umberto’s Night and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Her collection The Only Country was the Color of my Skin is forthcoming in 2018. Nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net, and featured on Poetry Daily, her poems have won the Thomas Merton poetry prize and prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review. Visit her online at kathleenhellen.com
